Canberra in October 2010: Wettest October in 11 years

Rainfall

Canberra recorded 88.6 mm of rainfall during October, which is the wettest October since 1999 when 106.2 mm was recorded. This is well above the historical October average1 of 62.1 mm, and double the rainfall experienced in October 2009 (43.2 mm).

The rain fell over 10 days (average 10). The most significant rain event occurred from the 13th - 16th, when a slow-moving trough brought widespread heavy rainfall to much of the ACT. Rainfall totals during the period included 181 mm at Mount Ginini, 119.4 mm at Tuggeranong and 78.8 mm at Canberra. An extensive cloud band extending across the ACT on the 30th-31st, brought widespread rainfall to the region, including 48.8 mm at Mount Ginini.

Two lesser rain events occurred during the month. Widespread light rainfall was recorded across the ACT from the 3rd to the 7th, associated with the passage of an upper level trough, and from the 23rd - 24th associated with the passage of a cold front.

Temperature

The average maximum temperature for Canberra was 19.3°C. This is close to the historical average of 19.4°C and slightly above the 19.0°C recorded for October 2009. The warmest day at Canberra was 23.6°C on the 5th and the coolest day was 11.3°C on the 16th. Across the ACT the warmest day was 24.7°C at Tuggeranong AWS on the 22nd, and the coolest day was 9.5°C at Tidbinbilla Nature Reserve on the 16th.

The average minimum temperature for Canberra during October was 7.0°C, which is above the historical average of 6.1°C, and slightly warmer than the October 2009 average of 6.6°C. One night dropped below freezing (1st), which is average for this time of year. The coolest night at Canberra was -0.4°C on the 1st, and for the ACT the coolest was -5.5°C at Mount Ginini on the 16th.

Wind

Canberra Airport was dominated by east-southeasterly winds during the mornings, 33% of the time. During the afternoons, north to northwesterly winds prevailed for 63% of the time. 2 strong wind days (winds >= 40kmhr) were recorded, which is below the historical average of 4 days.

Other phenomena

5 fogs were observed at Canberra Airport during October and nil frosts (average 7). Sunshine averaged 7.3 hours per day, which is below the historical average of 8.6 hours. No thunderstorms were recorded (average 3).

Daily rainfall

Most values are the precipitation in the 24 hours to 9 am on the day indicated.
Days marked with »» are part of a longer accumulation, which is marked like this on the final day.
Values over 100 mm have been rounded to the nearest whole millimetre.
Days marked with - have a rainfall report of zero;
days left blank have no rainfall report (which often indicates no rain fell).
This table is very wide; you may have to scroll sideways to see all the days, and you may need to set the paper to 'landscape' to print.

Notes

As of March 2010, the official station for Canberra is 70351 'Canberra Airport'. Averages from the previous site, 70014 Canberra Airport Comparison, are used for comparisons (all years of record).

1Averages are long-term means based on observations from
all available years of record, which vary widely from site to site.
They are not shown for sites with less than 20 years of record, as they cannot then be calculated reliably.

A Monthly Climate Summary is prepared to list the main features of the weather in ACT Monthly Summary using the most timely and accurate information available on the date of publication; it will generally not be updated. Later information, including data that has had greater opportunity for quality control, will be presented in the Monthly Weather Review, usually published in the fourth week of the month.

This statement has been prepared based on information available at
12 pm on Monday 1 November 2010.
Some checks have been made on the data, but it is possible that results will change
as new information becomes available.

The median
is sometimes more representative than the
mean
of long-term average rain.

The Rank indicates how rainfall this time compares with the climate record for the site,
based on the
decile ranking
(very low rainfall is in decile 1, low in decile 2 or 3,
average in decile 4 to 7, high in decile 8 or 9
and very high is in decile 10).
The Fraction of average shows how much rain has fallen this time as a
percentage of the long-term mean.